Marine Corps. 10K at Quantico

Okay, the Quantico 10K is in the books. WOW! What a great race. The base was totally unbelievable. Miles and miles and miles of beautiful country decked in fall colors surrounded by patriotism that made you feel honored just to be able to participate. Maureen was totally awesome and we ran a great race. Our last mile was within one second of our first mile and all the rest were within 20 seconds of those two miles. We finished strong and I know you may be thinking, "What! You want some kind of medal?" Well that is exactly what we got, a 2008 Marine Corps. 10K Turkey Trot medal. Waaaaay Cool!

Lots of Marines running and managing the race as well as marine sitings through out the day doing Marine stuff, which oddly enough seemed like an awful lot of running. I think there were a lot more of them running than we could see because a bunch of them wore camo so who knows how many there really were. I was quite moved by the national anthem played before the race. Many runners in the "cattle shoot" at the starting line, came to attention with the respect the song and the flag deserve. I felt both awe, inspiration, reverence and a severe case of unworthiness to be on the same track with them considering the sacrifices that they and those like them have made on my behalf. Anyway it was really really cool to even be there and much more to be able to participate. THANKS MAUREEN!!!

Okay, now to the results, I know you have all been waiting for this. Maureen mentioned we ran 55:04. The Marine Corps. 10K website has us listed at 55:05, however, the official time was actually 55:03. That is the time that was on my official watch on my official wrist, so 55:03 is the official time, officially. So there!!! Even better, Maureen was 15th in her age division and I was 13th in mine. (Don't get all bogged down in the fact that there may have only been 13 people my age in the race! I still finished 13th and she finished in 15th!) There are no other numbers that are even necessary to list. The official website does have Maureen Petron listed overall 184th, and Keith Hall 185th. Yes, yes, yes, roughly the same as Maureen 1 - Keith 0!

Anyway, it was so much fun and I felt so good about the way we ran, about the base, the Marines, the whole thing. It was totally GREAT! One more time, THANKS MAUREEN!!!